Law firm sues 'World's first robot lawyer' for lacking a law degree

The "world's first robot lawyer" powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), DoNotPay, is being accused of operating without a law degree.

In a class action case filed by US law firm Edelson, DoNotPay faces allegations that it is 'masquerading as a licensed practitioner'.

The app was set to make history for advising the first defendant in court with AI.

The chatbot-style tool is centred around making legal information and 'self-help' accessible to support consumers fighting against large corporations.

In the complaint filed March 3 in a San Francisco court and published Thursday, the plaintiff’s legal team claims that DoNotPay’s description of itself as the "world’s first robot lawyer" is incorrect and unlawful.

Further, it alleges that the company’s self-billing and lofty promises led its customers to believe they were receiving high quality legal advice and documents when they weren't.

"Unfortunately for its customers, DoNotPay is not actually a robot, a lawyer, nor a law firm. DoNotPay does not have a law degree, is not barred in any jurisdiction, and is not supervised by any lawyer," reads the suit.

The legal filing goes on to accuse the company of violating California code by "practicing law without a license."

Among other things, the suit cites a DoNotPay customer review in which someone reportedly tried to use the service to dispute two parking tickets and ended up paying more money because the company didn’t respond to a summons.

After trying to cancel their account, the customer was still charged a subscription fee by DoNotPay, per the lawsuit.

Former Stanford University student, Joshua Browder, founded DoNotPay in 2015 and initially intended for it to appeal parking tickets in the UK.

Since then, the company has expanded to the US and can now give advice on a number of other subjects including delayed flights, workplace rights and misleading advert claims.

Jonathan Faridian, who filed the Edelson lawsuit against DoNotPay, added that he had personally used DoNotPay's services to draft a discrimination complaint, a small claims filing and a number of other legal documents.

Mr Faridian said he 'believed he was purchasing legal documents and services that would be fit for use from a lawyer that was competent to provide them' but did not receive that.

Taking to social media, DoNotPay founder Mr Browder wrote: "Time and time again the only people that win are the lawyers. So I wanted to do something about it, building the DoNotPay robot lawyer to empower consumers to take on corporations on their own. This put my target on my back and Edelson began a campaign to stop us."

"So, we are fighting back! We have the receipts, have nothing to hide and will defend ourselves. We may even use our robot lawyer in the case," he said.